{"id":17028,"date":"2019-07-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-14T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/how-to-spot-project-failure-early\/"},"modified":"2019-07-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-14T05:00:00","slug":"how-to-spot-project-failure-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/how-to-spot-project-failure-early\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Spot Project Failure Early"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <!-- .post-meta --><\/p>\n<p>Not every project is destined to be a roaring success, in fact some are doomed before they even get the go-ahead from above. It&#x2019;s an unfortunate fact of life that we can&#x2019;t know how things will change or turn out when we set out on a certain path. The best we can ever do is to try and plot the best course with the information we have at hand and then keep a steady eye out to spot the icebergs that may emerge from the fog ahead.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2019\/07\/July-7.jpg\" alt height=\"400\"><\/p>\n<p>Knowing how to spot a failing project early enough to minimize the knock-on damage it causes to your team, the organization as a whole or your career is an essential skill for project managers everywhere. Project failure can often not be avoided but by being spotted early enough, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/failing-fast-is-fine-if-you-fail-right\/\">its effects can definitely be lessened<\/a>. Here&#x2019;s how to sharpen your wits when it comes to spotting project failure early.<\/p>\n<p><b>How to Spot a Failing Project<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>The system is not being followed<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Every project starts out with some kind of plan, with directions and objectives. It is also accompanied by a system of processes that are to be followed to achieve these objectives. An early sign of impending project failure is when these processes are regularly changed to &#x201C;do it a new way&#x201D;. These can be positive, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/\">introducing project management software like Planview AdaptiveWork<\/a>, but too little adherence to a standard will make a project disjointed.<\/p>\n<p><b>Long-term goals become subordinate to short-term wins<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Projects come in varying lengths and sizes and, especially with longer projects, it can be easy to lose sight of distant goals. For example, to please a client or impress an executive, one part of a project can be rushed through in place of another, even though deviating from the project&#x2019;s critical path can lead to serious delays and even complete failure.<\/p>\n<p><b>Everything&#x2019;s going well<\/b><\/p>\n<p>It might seem the opposite of a problem, but when everything goes quiet on the problems front, one of two things are happening. Either this is actually a meticulously planned and executed project with a healthy dose of good fortune (which is of course possible), or the smoke from the dumpster fire is so heavy that you can&#x2019;t actually see two feet in front of you.<\/p>\n<div id=\"content-cta\">\n<div id=\"content-cta-text\">Increase your business agility with Planview AdaptiveWork&#x2019;s project management software<\/div>\n<div id=\"content-cta-button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/resource\/product-tour\/\">Take a Product Tour<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>The future path is very ambiguous<\/b><\/p>\n<p>While it&#x2019;s not necessary to know precisely what will happen at 2pm on Tuesday five weeks from now, it&#x2019;s generally a good idea to know what should happen tomorrow or even next week. When everything seems to be urgent and there&#x2019;s no clear vision of the speed or direction of the project, crashes are likely to occur.<\/p>\n<p><b>Your vendor relationships are collapsing<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Relationships with contractors and suppliers are an essential element of any project&#x2019;s productive potential. For whatever reason it may happen, monetary, ideological or personal, <a href=\"\/six-strategies-for-dealing-with-difficult-vendors-2\">when vendor relationships start to break down<\/a> control of your project&#x2019;s destiny is being taken out of your hands and placed at the whim of others.<\/p>\n<p><b>The project is getting too personal<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Office politics are generally present, to greater and lesser degrees, in every organization. The risk for your project is when they start pulling your team and project in different directions. A project divided cannot stand and inter-personal issues can often deliver a fatal blow to even the best planned projects.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"client-logo\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/customers\/\" title=\"Siemens Energy\"><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2020\/08\/siemens_energy-200x100.png\" alt=\"Siemens Energy\"><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/customers\/\" title=\"IIROC Success\"><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2020\/07\/IIROC_logo-200x100.gif\" alt=\"IIROC Success\"><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/customers\/\" title=\"Financial Services Institution\"><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2020\/04\/FINANCIAL-SERVICES-IMG-200x100.jpg\" alt=\"Financial Services Institution\"><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/customers\/\" title=\"M Squared\"><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2020\/03\/m-squared-logo-200x100.jpg\" alt=\"M Squared\"><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/customers\/\" title=\"Aliancys Success\"><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2019\/12\/aoc_aliancys-logo-800x400-200x100.jpg\" alt=\"Aliancys Success\"><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarizen.com\/customers\/\" title=\"Bonfiglioli Success\"><img class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.planview.com\/clarizen\/wp-content\/upload\/2019\/11\/bonfiglioli_logo-800x400-200x100.jpg\" alt=\"Bonfiglioli Success\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not every project is destined to be a roaring success, in fact some are doomed before they even get the go-ahead from above. It&#x2019;s an unfortunate fact of life that we can&#x2019;t know how things will change or turn out when we set out on a certain path. The best we can ever do is&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pmo-project-management-organizations"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.8 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Spot Project Failure Early<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some projects are destined to fail from the start. Here&#039;s how to spot the warning signs early enough to alert your stakeholder&#039;s, clients and team.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/how-to-spot-project-failure-early\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Spot Project Failure Early\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some projects are destined to fail from the start. 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